Taylors Lakes Secondary College has returned from its most successful Kanga Cup ever.
The school runs its own soccer academy, and both its boys and girls teams qualified for the semi-finals before eventually finishing fourth.
The Kanga Cup, contested earlier this month in Canberra, had more than 340 teams and 7000 children competing in its 25th year.
Soccer academy co-ordinator Paul Castelli was rapt with the school’s results.
“This is our third year of competing and every year we’ve got better and better,” he said.
“I think there’s been a bit of a shift from being more participation-based to knowing we can come to this tournament and do really well.
“The guys worked really hard in the lead-up and that has paid off.”
Among highlights for Taylors Lakes was the boys’ team’s win against Canberra NTC, which is made up of ACT state players.
Taylors Lakes scored a long-range goal in the dying seconds to snatch the win. Castelli said one of the greatest advantages of the Kanga Cup was that it gave the chance for juniors to travel as a team.
“For a lot of them, it’s their first time away from home and you really see them step up,” he said.
“The older kids in the side act as mentors to the younger ones. It really helps both groups with their development – for the older group not only as footballers but as people,” Castelli said.
